Harry Potter Wiki:User Policy

PROCLAMATION: Educational Decree No. 24This page is considered an official policy on the Harry Potter Wiki.It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

The Harry Potter Wiki's user policy is meant to encourage users to work more on articles, and not spend all of their time on customising their userpages as well as informing users of their responsibilities.

Contents

User pages

Your user page is not your primary contribution to this wiki.

However, user pages do serve a useful purpose, and regular users are encouraged to create a userpage which gives some information about themselves, and helps organise their contributions to the Harry Potter Wiki. For example, they may wish list their collection of Harry Potter references, advertise contributions they are proud of, or list articles they intend to work on. They may also include their user name on other wikis or Harry Potter fan sites, link to a personal page on another site, list the languages they speak, or talk about their favourite Harry Potter characters. For more information on what userpages can be used for, see Wikipedia:User page.

Many users also enjoy writing about their imaginary persona in the Harry Potter universe. This is neither encouraged nor discouraged. However, Harry Potter Wiki users who work exclusively on their fan fiction, and do not wish to contribute significantly to any articles, are strongly encouraged to use the Harry Potter Fanon Wiki instead. Users who work exclusively on user page content unrelated to Harry Potter or the Harry Potter Wiki should, likewise, find somewhere else to host their webpages. The Harry Potter Wiki doesn't accept fanon for a full article per the canon policy.

Some users also like to list their contributions on their user pages. This is fine for major edits, like rewriting the majority of an article, but is discouraged for minor things, as it may cause a user to violate the editing policy.

Thus, we discourage users from working primarily on user pages. All users and their user pages must comply with the following rules:

Rules for user page use

User pages in violation of the following policies will be edited or deleted in order to comply with these policies. Users repeatedly in violation of these rules may be blocked according to the blocking policy's rules for registered users who post fanon.

User page fan fiction must be restricted to either the main user page or a single subpage. This does not mean a user can put fanon on both a user page and a subpage, or on a series of subpages. Users who want to make more than one fan fiction page are encouraged to use the Harry Potter Fanon Wiki instead.

Users violating the policy on user page fan fiction will be reminded of the relevant sections of this document, and of the existence of the fanon wiki.

User pages and images within must be "safe for work": no content which is unsuitable for a family audience or would be likely to disturb or offend other users. Any illegal or inappropriate content or links to such material is forbidden.

User subpages not containing fan fiction may be kept, subject to the user image policy and some usefulness to the project

Specifically allowed are:

Personal sandbox

To do list

Contributions page

Toolbox (maintenance tasks, useful templates, etc.)

Signature page

User subpages unrelated to Harry Potter or the Harry Potter Wiki are not allowed.

Specifically not allowed include:

Weblogs

Guestbooks

Likewise, a guestbook section or a weblog should not be put on a user's main page.

User pages must not be put in categories which would cause them to be mistaken for "real" articles. Likewise, {{Title}} must not be used to make the userpage appear to be a "real" article.

Secondary accounts set up primarily in order to have a second user page are disallowed, according to the Sock puppetry policy page.

If a user wishes to change his or her name, their old pages must be either moved to subpages of the new user name's page, or deleted. The original user page may be kept, if content is restricted to a note redirecting the reader to the new user name.

User talk page policy

Archiving

Users may archive their talk pages when they grow too unwieldy to scroll through (this means at least a few screens long). If a user wishes to archive their talk page they should move it to a subpage of their talk page. A link to the archive subpages should be placed at the top of the current talk page. Alternately a user may clear their talk page. The suggested title for an archived talk page [[User talk:<Your username>/Archive #]], where # is a number.

There are two methods for archiving. Which method is used is up to the user's preference.

Method #1

Create a new article with the title User talk:your user name here/Archive (or Archive 1, Archive 2, etc.)

Cut whatever text you want to archive from your talk page, paste it in the new article and save.

Add a link to the new Archive at the top of your talk page.

This method will keep the talk page's History in the "main" talk page.

Method #2

Remove the redirect from User talk:your user name here, that should appear once you've made the move.

Add a link to the new Archive at the top of your talk page.

This method will move the History from that time period from the "main" talk page to the new Archive.

Editing

When editing a talk page, users should respect the talk page's owner in every way possible. Abusive language, threats, etc. will not be tolerated; see no personal attacks for more information. If you feel a user has made a personal attack or in some other way violated your talk page, please contact an administrator.

Comments left on a user's talk page should not be deleted unless they are abusive and/or threatening, and then it is encouraged that the user archive the comment instead of deleting it and bring the comment to the attention of an administrator. Under no circumstances should a user delete a comment (whether they made it or not) on someone else's talk page.

A user may add a header asking users to abide by other rules or ask for a particular formatting to a message. These are to be followed except where they contradict current policy.

User image policy

The Harry Potter Wiki's user image policy is as follows:

No more than three images should be uploaded which are intended solely for a userpage or customised signature.

User signature policy

A user's signature should provide at least a link to the user's userpage; one to the user's talk page is encouraged, but not required (both of these can be on another wiki if that is preferred). More links can be provided (to link to other wiki's talk pages, etc.) with a limit of five links.

Only one image may be used in a signature, with a limit of 15 pixels high and 100 pixels wide. This image counts towards the user image policy above.

Signatures must use proper HTML (meaning all tags must be closed in the proper order). This is to ensure pages are not broken when signatures are added. See W3C Markup Validation Service to check your signature's HTML.

If you wish to include a signature as a template it must be placed in the User namespace (so for example at User:Yourusername/Sig).